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At six-foot-four inches tall, Dryden was a literal giant on the ice, as well as a metaphorical one off it. He embodied bigness: in the number of things he did (and did well) and in the scope of his ideas, especially about Canada and its place in the world.

If millions of fans hadn鈥檛 personally witnessed it, Dryden鈥檚 hockey career would be thought of as literally incredible today. With the Montreal Canadiens, he was named most valuable player of the Stanley Cup playoffs聽even before聽he鈥檇 won NHL rookie of the year.

He won six championships in only eight professional seasons. He was in net when聽Team Canada made history against the Soviet Union in 1972. (He was also somehow ). He won聽three-quarters聽of the games he played. If there were a Hockey Hall of Even More Fame, Dryden would be a first-ballot inductee.

And he accomplished much of that while attending law school. In fact, he took a year off in the middle of his short NHL career to article at a firm in Toronto. After retiring from hockey, Dryden practised and taught law, then became a writer 鈥� not just of books about hockey (although he did聽听补听听辞蹿听) but also a novel about聽, plus non-fiction works on聽 and .

He served as president of the 海角社区官网Maple Leafs from 1997 to 2003, then ran for office and became an MP for York Centre, serving as a cabinet minister . In 2006, he ran for the Liberal leadership.

I was on the convention floor in Montreal when Dryden鈥檚 leadership bid went down in flames. He wasn鈥檛 a noted orator, but I remember his speech well 鈥� because it sounded as if he鈥檇 read it from one of his books or essays, his authorial style and big-picture philosophizing evident in every phrase.

He began by enumerating the many parts of Canada he鈥檇 visited during his campaign, noting the diversity you can find throughout this country, the multitudes we contain. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the bigness of this place, not the distances,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ur spirit, what we鈥檝e done. That鈥檚 us.鈥� A rising conservative tide, he warned, stood against this: 鈥淭heir understanding of Canada is so small, so pinched. Ungenerous. Divisive.鈥�

We鈥檙e a big country, he said, one that can do big things and has done big things. 鈥淲hatever we鈥檝e been,鈥� he added, 鈥渨e will be far more in the future.鈥� In his 2010 book, Becoming Canada, Dryden returned to that theme, arguing that Canadians should understand their country as 鈥渟omething bigger鈥� than what they鈥檝e traditionally imagined.

Writing about the 4 Nations Face-Off earlier this year, when U.S. President Donald Trump was really leaning into his 鈥�51st state鈥� talk, Dryden considered sports as national symbols we could learn from when faced with existential threats. 鈥淓verybody, every country, has something inside them that is fundamental. That matters so much that it鈥檚 not negotiable. That鈥檚 deeply, deeply personal,鈥� he wrote.聽鈥淪omething that, if threatened, you鈥檇 do anything to protect.鈥�

He concluded: 鈥淐anadians are defiantly not-American. They will need to be much more than that in the next four years. Canadians will need to be defiantly Canadian.鈥�

His idea of what 鈥渄efiantly Canadian鈥� means reflected his approach to life: staying open to opportunities and ready to try different things, looking not only at the job in front of him but also at the bigger picture and the potential it represents.

Born in Hamilton, Dryden was a definitively聽海角社区官网boy who became a legend in Montreal. He was also a great Canadian, a big man who lived a big life thinking big thoughts about his big country. And we鈥檝e lost him at a time when Canada could use much more of that.